Someone should have taken a picture of the eager faces of R.C.’s who are awaiting the return of the Traditional Rite of the Holy Mass in Latin (something the PNCC has always had – and in the vernacular) as word creeps out that the Pope’s Motu proprio on its restoration will be a no-go. This word is in opposition to the word from other sources here, here, here, and here.

As The Young Fogey points out – it’s not about Latin, but rather Godwardness, holiness, and respect for what one is doing in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

He picked up on the story in No Motu proprio. He also picked up on another story I read last night: Pope’s Latinist pronounces death of a language in which the Rev. Reginald Foster says of the Motu porprio:

He said reports that Pope Benedict will reintroduce the Tridentine Mass, which dates from 1570 and is largely conducted in Latin, were wrong —“ not least because of the Pope’s desire to avoid more controversies. A speech last year offended Muslims and more recently he gave initial support to a Polish archbishop who was eventually forced to resign, after admitting that he had collaborated with the communist-era secret police.

“He is not going to do it,” Fr Foster said. “He had trouble with Regensberg, and then trouble in Warsaw, and if he does this, all hell will break loose.” In any case, he added: “It is a useless mass and the whole mentality is stupid. The idea of it is that things were better in the old days. It makes the Vatican look medieval.”

The whole exercise tells me that R.C.’s have less respect for the Pope than the Orthodox, Orientals, and PNCC combined. Sure he’s a great figurehead (sort of like the Queen of England), but if he tries to play the part the ultramontane want, he gets shut down. Can anyone say committees (Curia, local bishop’s conferences) run amok.

As to the Rev. Foster’s points, that medievalist attitude has paid his room and board for a long time, dead languages and all. He’s gotten his fill at the table of academic exercise. I’d like to see him in a poor rural parish now that his skills are no longer necessary, medieval, and simply old. There’s no going back Rev. Foster, there’s no going back.